If you are seeing a neurologist for peripheral neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, stroke-related damage, migraine headaches, epilepsy, or a movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease, you should know that good nutrition and certain nutritional supplements are proven to help these problems.

They can:

reduce pain

slow the progression of nerve damage

help you reduce your drug dosage

remove toxins from your body that may be contributing

to your health problems

I have helped a number of people with neurological problems, working with them and their doctors to safely combine their medical care with natural, nutrition-based treatments.

If you have peripheral neuropathy, for instance, consider taking alpha lipoic acid, a nutritional supplement that can work as well as the drug Neurontin–without the side effects. Make sure you’re getting enough vitamin B12, folate and Coenzyme Q10, which can help relieve some forms of neuropathy. And if you’re taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, you need to be aware that these drugs greatly increase your risk for developing neuropathy, and can also cause muscle weakness and mood changes. Getting your cholesterol down with a healthy, plant-based diet can help you lower your dosage of statin drugs and reduce your risk for developing these troubling symptoms.

People with MS often do better when they start on an anti-inflammatory diet, getting more omega-3 fats and fewer omega-6 and saturated fats. They also benefit from other nutrients: vitamins D, E and B12, n-acetyl-cysteine, phosphatidylserine, CoQ10 and alpha lipoic acid.

People with Parkinson’s disease often have had exposure to toxic chemicals, such as solvents, herbicides or pesticides, and may benefit from an evaluation to reduce ongoing environmental toxin exposure. They also often improve by following a detoxifying diet and supplements to help their bodies break down and remove brain and nerve-damaging toxins.

People who’ve had a stroke, who have high blood pressure, or who are at risk for having stroke because of clotting problems can reduce their blood pressure with a diet high in potassium, magnesium, calcium, vitamin D, getting more omega-3 fats, and cutting back on sodium and saturated fats. This kind of diet can also help restore normal heartbeat in some people who have heart arrhythmia problems.

People with migraines and epilepsy sometimes find that they are reacting to certain foods or food additives. A little detective work can help pinpoint these foods, but sometimes people need to get food allergy testing to figure out what is going on. I’ve found people often improve once they stop eating foods, or, especially, food additives like sulfites and MSG–and aspartame−that are making them sick.

Parkinson’s Patients & Care Givers are welcome to enjoy a relaxing day in a peaceful surrounding where they will discover simple, natural ways to improve their balance, reduce tremors, ease muscle tension, increase liver and brain function and much more!

This idea was introduced to me on a warm August evening in 1974, during my introduction to effortless meditation.

“And what’s missing isn’t out there in the world”, the teacher said. “What’s missing is inside.” Everyone is looking for this missing element, i.e. peace, fulfillment, enlightenment. Our problem arises because we’re looking outside ourselves. As an example, when he was speaking, I was an unhappy Industrial Engineer working for one of the titans of American industry, Kraft Foods. Did my career bring me peace, NO WAY. Did my marriage bring me peace, NO. And these, I thought at the time, would bring me lasting contentment.

This teacher, soon to become my meditation instructor, said that nothing “out there in the world” is ever enough unless we’ve developed our inner life. Thankfully I started the quest, acting on the message he delivered that evening. I felt I had nothing to lose and much to potentially gain; he told us, “develop the inner value of life through this meditation practice, and everything in your life will improve exponentially.”

To understand this, we just need to contemplate a basic truth of the ancient cultures. Consciousness, the energy field at the source of our thought, is primary and matter is secondary! Many labels are synonymous with word Consciousness; Absolute, Being, Higher Power, Source Energy, the Unified Field of Consciousness, Pure Awareness, and some just refer to it as Spirit. The labels aren’t important, the value comes with direct experience of the state, no matter what we call it.

The simple truths shared with me in the presentation on that August evening changed my life, because I took action on the teacher’s message. I enrolled in his effortless meditation course and began the daily practice. Then, a few years later, I embarked on the journey of becoming a teacher myself.

When a gardener brings nourishment to the root of the plant, every aspect of it, the stem, leaves, flowers, it all flourishes. Pure Consciousness or Being is our essence/root. Regularly bring your conscious attention to this level of life, and watch your life get better and better. It works, I promise.

It might seem reasonable that the main role of enjoyment in success comes after you have succeeded in achieving a goal: you achieve a goal and kick back in a wave of enjoyment. There is nothing wrong with that, but I am going to offer you another point of view about enjoyment and success. Wouldn’t it be great if you could enjoy your way to success? This may seem counter-intuitive to those of us who were brought up on the value of hard work as the way to success; work first – play later. But in reality, enjoyment is a crucial factor on the way to achieving a goal. In fact, is it success if you don’t enjoy yourself on the way to achieving your goal? When you are too stressed to enjoy what you are doing, you actually get in the way of your own success. Here is an example of what I mean.

I recently completed a round of coaching with a client and asked him to share what he had gained from our work together. He said that he came into coaching wanting to figure out how to make himself take action to achieve his goals and left knowing how to let it happen. We took a look at how he was using his energy. As a result, he saw that he could enhance his use of the energies of creativity, enjoyment and relationship to accomplish his goals. He started playing toward his goals with a colleague. They partnered, with the specific intention of having fun with creative ways of interacting with potential clients. As a result, he made significant progress toward his goal; he had more clients and more income.

Enjoyment is a crucial form of energy because it is so closely related to creativity. Creativity thrives in an environment of enjoyment. Creativity can be stimulated to flow in life-threatening circumstances (think about Apollo 13, for example), for the most part, fear and anxiety do not support creativity. Also, enjoyment is also connected with the free flow of physical vitality, since enjoyment supports the free flow of energy through relaxation.

How do we put that to use? My client chose to enjoy his work. One way to see the word enjoy is not as a passive experience, but as the process of bringing joy into what you do, to en-joy your activity.

Here are some suggestions about how to en-joy your work:

Remember that you can choose to en-joy to what you do; enjoyment does not come from the outside.

It does not take extra time to en-joy your work, so don’t listen to inner conversations that say you are too busy.

Be alert and fully present to what you are doing.

Focus on the action, not the outcome. Enjoy the trip, not just anticipation of the destination.

Choose an activity that you experience as mildly unpleasant and experiment with bringing enjoyment to it. What have you got to lose?